In reply to I've become... Political, posted by sleepygirl2 on February 26, 2013, at 17:10:48

Can you organise being indignant without being self righteous?

In Spain the Occupy thing, or the people who went to the demos, were called Los Indignados.

There was a manifestacion in the Plaza del Sol (Madrid)a few years ago with, I think, a million people at it. I really wanted to talk to Spaniards about the economics of it all but my Spanish wasn't anywhere near up to it and I was too shy.

We should be indignant. Here about the type of people who are attracted to politics in the first place. So many of them are like private school kids debating. It is really low grade, no intellectual, not to speak of behavioural, standards. This is not a party political thing here at all....perhaps the people in the ALP are worse? I follow the American situation with interest. What is common to both places is a failure to create a believable and believed narrative of the common good. This sequester(?) thing is a good example. Here the ALP kind of gave up the ghost about a narrative and is half full of spivs and the corrupt. What feels similar to you is that the ALP is now arguing on the coalition's terms, allowing the coalition to move to the right, so our system comes to more resemble yours, ridiculous I know, but we send our people to the USA to learn how to do it. The Liberal Party here, after WWII, used to have many pragmatic decent people, and perhaps still does but not as many. It all feels so confected these days. They are in a position of trust.

In reply to I've become... Political, posted by sleepygirl2 on February 26, 2013, at 17:10:48

I sure wish more mentally ill folks, once on medications and stable and able to do some things again, would at least register to vote if not already. And at least vote consistently, even in mid term elections. And fire off a few emails at their legislators a few times a year about the many many problems with mental health care.

One key thing is this. Many people when they do bother to write their legislators, they just focus on their federal legislators in Washington DC. Few bother to write their state legislators. And thats a big mistake. Medicine is regulated heavily by the individual states. Doctors and nurses are licensed by fifty STATE medical boards. Not by the feds. Also, the majority of mental institutions and mental hospitals are state or county run...again a state issue not a federal issue. Access to quality mental health care is actually heavily a state issue, not a federal issue.

So if youve become "political" and thats good, be sure to contact BOTH federal AND state legislators and your state governor on this mental health stuff.

If just fifty percent of stabilized mentally ill persons would "get political," and consistently vote, a lot of the problems with the mental health system would go away pretty fast. Fifty percent of the chronically mentally ill would be a lot of votes that politicians would be looking to get.

LostBoyinNC

Eric

> But it's a problem> I am saddened by it, and angry, and disgusted.> And I don't want to be self righteous, but I think I am.> :-(>

In reply to I've become... Political, posted by sleepygirl2 on February 26, 2013, at 17:10:48

SG, has the sequester bill pushed you to the limit? I wonder what the next few decades will be like with so much happening. Where I live the BLM leased the Monterey Tar Shale (about 60 miles from my town) strictly on the low down. It's relentless.

I was/am truly angry about the sequester bill. Stunned. Incompetents. Or is the word inconsiderates? I mean not all of them, but enough.

In reply to Re: I've become... Political » sleepygirl2, posted by Beckett on March 2, 2013, at 12:04:36

The sequester....RidiculousFeels like a poker game, like 'how much are you willing to bet?'... You know?And at whose expense?I noticed 180 something million?? incuts to substance abuse and mental illness funding when I was looking at some of the numbersAnd other irresponsible cuts

In reply to Re: I've become... Political » sigismund, posted by sleepygirl2 on March 3, 2013, at 22:31:02

>Do you suppose there's a country that's doing a good job?

You'd be a bit hard pressed at the moment to find one. A lot of Europe seems out with the whole austerity thing that has lead to 55% youth unemployment in Spain, for example. Italy's politics has been awful for ages, though I do like Grillo (sp?), at least from a distance. Iceland responded to the GFC intelligently, I think.

Arlo Guthrie is visiting, and was on the radio talking about supporting the Pauls. His guitars were impounded coming in here and he had a libertarian response. It is interesting how easily it was assumed in the US that a maximum kind of foreign intervention policy was the right way to go. That goes back to WWII. I enjoyed Leonard Cohen singing 'I haven't felt this good since WWII', or something like that.

In reply to I've become... Political, posted by sleepygirl2 on February 26, 2013, at 17:10:48

I think most people tend to be self righteous. If only in not at all being self righteous. :)

It's not a bad thing. It's certainly better than people thinking there are no ideals to live by, or that they may have ideals but they don't let them get in the way of their behavior.

I too am rather disgusted by politics and politicians. Even the ones that I most like let me down. And badly. Maybe the safest politicians to admire are dead ones who have been thoroughly researched.

It's not bad to be interested by political news. But for myself, I find it often leads to feelings of impotence and anger. I don't have enough of a sense that I actually can make a difference, so I prefer not to invest too much of myself in it. I try to educate myself enough to know if there's anything I can do, and to decide which of the two persons running for any election is less corrupt or idiotic, as the case may be.

Involve yourself to the point that it's healthy. But if it's making you feel worse, maybe it's time to step back a bit? There was a time when I got really obsessed by the news. When I didn't have my computer a month, I stepped away from it naturally and I feel far better now.

In reply to Re: I've become... Political » Beckett, posted by sleepygirl2 on March 2, 2013, at 17:51:52

Is it true that the sequester involves reductions in future increases rather than cuts?

Goodness only knows there ought to be cuts. Just probably not across the board ones. As much as I appreciate FEMA, I do see waste of FEMA money. If FEMA wisely trimmed its budget, I wouldn't at all mind.

Is the across the board issue only on an agency level? Is the agency allowed to decide where to cut? Mind you, my experience with local government is that they always choose the cuts that will most inconvenience the populace and increase the chances of tax rates being increased. No one ever suggests cutting the salaries and perks of the top officials. We're not likely to vote for an increase in taxes for the parish officials to go on "fact finding" tours of popular resorts, so they'll be able to apply those lessons to our city. But threaten to cut the police and schools and people will rush to raise their own taxes. Never mind that the "dedicated funds" generally cause decreases in general fund expenditures for the same services.

Bah. Politics.

Transparency is the key. Line by line expenditures should be open to public scrutiny. And news sources should hire people who know how to decipher them.

In reply to Re: I've become... Political, posted by Dinah on March 8, 2013, at 8:22:02

If I sound cynical, I am - and with good reason.

You may have noticed that our last mayor is under indictment, with charges growing. He's the last in a long line of indictees. Bless the feds.

If I am reluctant to hand money to the government, I have my reasons. My main vote is for accountability. Across the board cuts are foolish, granted. I'm sure not all agencies waste money (or worse) equally.

But to be fair, I am equally disgusted with the governor I heartily supported. He wants to replace taxes based on income with sales taxes. Paid disproportionately by those of lesser income brackets. Bah and humbug.

In reply to Re: I've become... Political, posted by Dinah on March 8, 2013, at 8:33:06

Dinah I showed Greg and it says it's horrible now sales will go down and those that need money the most will be hit harder. So buy something in a store lets says and the sales taxes are higher? No fair if this is the case. Phillipa